Conceptual metaphors in the network language

【Abstract】： As the Internet is becoming more and more popular in the world and netizens are increasing markedly， network language has caught much attention. This paper introduces the meaning of conceptual metaphor and discusses the relationship between the network language and the conceptual metaphors and some cognitive characteristics of these metaphors. It’s showed metaphor is a kind of important means of cognition for the network language generated and the network metaphor research is beneficial to the further study of this field.

【Keywords】： network language，conceptual metaphor，cognitive characteristics

I. Introduction

Nowadays， the network language plays a very important role in the communication online. Online communication needs us to deliver our ideas quickly and traditional forms of language expression are not concise and vivid enough for the input and output. So network language arises at the historic moment and spread at an alarming rate. Compared with traditional media， network transmission is a more fashionable way of mass communication， it is favored among netizens， especially young people. In addition， it gradually affects traditional media and the way we speak.Network language is vigorous and it is not hard to find conceptual metaphors， such as“菜鳥”“恐龍”and“馬甲”.

II. Conceptual metaphors and the network language

2.1. The meaning of conceptual metaphor

In cognitive linguistics， conceptual metaphor， or cognitive metaphor， refers to the understanding of one idea or a conceptual domain in terms of another.

A conceptual domain can be any coherent organization of human experience. This idea， and a detailed examination of the underlying processes， was first extensively explored by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in their work Metaphors We Live By. Other cognitive scientists study subjects similar to conceptual metaphor under the labels \"analogy\" and \"conceptual blending\". It is not our traditional thinking of metaphor， which is merely a language phenomenon that belongs to a kind of rhetorical devices.

2. 2 The relationship between conceptual metaphor and the network language

Network language not only can tell the user mode of thinking， but also reflects the cognition and motivation behind the language. Metaphor， as an important cognitive model that can produce new words contributes to the varieties of the network language through imagination， association， analogy and so on. Thus many words are the products of conceptual metaphor.

III. The network conceptual metaphor： types and cognitive features

This article just from the perspective of the source domain to discuss the types of conceptual metaphor and its cognitive characteristics. Here， I just want to talk about the metaphors that concerns human body， animals.

3.1 the metaphors relates with human body

Metaphor is based on people’s basic experience. In the primitive society， people use their bodies themselves as the standard or a measure to measure the things around ， this is determined by the human cognitive order. Human beings first know the things around that are tangible and concrete， including the human body and its organs. Later， humans’ cognitive developed into a more advanced stage， the familiar things（including organs） that humans are already familiar became the basis for humans to know， experience and describe other things of the world， especially the things that are intangible， abstract and difficult to define.Thus， by describing the specific things， humans expressed the abstract concept and formed the cognitive style and conceptual language（including the part relates to the body）. This reveals the mode how humans know things， from the nearer to the farther， from the concrete to the abstract etc.

In the network language， netizens also like using conceptual metaphors relates with the human body. For example， use \"skin\" refers to the \"interface\" （such as \"QQ skin\" and \"sogou input method skin\"）and use \"養眼（eye candy）\" refers to the people who look nice.

3.2 the metaphors relate with animals

As for the evolution of human beings， It is not hard to find that humans are always connecting with the animals. We also can see this from the languages of humans. And not only we can find metaphor clues in our daily lives but also from the internet language.

First， clues based on the forms or appearance of animals. For example， “mouse” -a part of the computer is not the traditional meaning of mouse， we call it “mouse” just because it’s like a mouse. “Dinosaur” is not the extincted animal， it means the ugly girl who scare people at the first glance. Of course， this is kind of teasing.

Second， clues based on the culture. If you often chat with your foreign friends online you will find the bald eagle symbolizes America and the lion represent the crown of Britain.The different distribution of power in societies results in differential use

of animal metaphor by the participants of those power relations.

Third， metaphor clues based on the characteristics or attributes of of animals. For instance， “bug” is one kind of insects that people usually dislike， and in the network language it’s connected with the failure of the operation of the computers. The similar example “virus” means the destructive procedure not “germ” .

IV. Conclusion

From the above analysis， we have a better understanding of the relationship between the network language and the conceptual metaphors and some cognitive characteristics of these metaphors， especially those associated with the human body and the animals.

Bibliography

[1] Lakoff，GJohnson，M.Metaphors We Live By[M].Chicago：University of Chicago Press，1980.

[2] 張平Cognitive and Cultural Analysis of English Animal Metaphor ，2010

[3] 李瑩.“英漢動物詞匯的隱喻認知意義”[J].河北理工大

學學報，2008，（3）.